Chengqinlü Preserved Sweet Potatoes

Chengqinlü Preserved Sweet Potatoes

　　Chengde’s Qinjiagou Village is located 27 kilometers from downtown Chengde, reachable by heading west along the Shangbancheng Town road. A few years ago, in this small mountain village of just over 800 residents, young people went out to work, while the older generation tended to their modest plots of land, working from sunrise to sunset, living simple and quiet lives. But all of that changed after the new village chief of Qinjiagou took office, and the root of that change was the “sweet potato”—a common yet extraordinary crop. It’s common because it’s so widely grown, but extraordinary because it led local people toward prosperity.

　　Growing Sweet Potatoes Leads to a Path to Wealth: Qinjiagou Village Finds Success

　　In 2015, the Chengde Changfalü Bao Shu Ye Planting Farmers' Professional Cooperative was recognized as a municipal-level model cooperative. In the same year, “Chengqinlü Bao Brand Fresh Sweet Potatoes” were included in the 2015 National Directory of Famous, Special, and High-Quality New Products, and received green product certification from the Ministry of Agriculture. Dried sweet potato products processed from fresh sweet potatoes were sold in surrounding markets including Beijing, Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, and Chengde, earning praise from consumers. The editor’s hometown also grew sweet potatoes, but only as a supplementary crop—no one could have imagined that relying on sweet potatoes could lead to a well-off life.

　　The milk-flavored sweet potato cultivation in Qinjiagou has been successfully tested and obtained a national patent for milk-flavored sweet potato farming. These will be officially launched on the market this year. At the same time, the sweet potato products produced in Qinjiagou have passed the review of the China Green Food Development Center and have been certified as Grade A Green Food.